And the Partners in Crime
by The Black Sun's Daughter
Summary: Their thief gives them a gift. It's silly and sappy and so very Ezekiel that it almost hurts, but Jacob and Cassandra wouldn't have him any other way.


Ezekiel's given Jacob and Cassandra his solemn promise that he no longer steals from people unless they're bad people.

Of course, his definition of 'bad' varies pretty widely, but he knows what his lovers do and do not consider 'bad,' and he operates inside those boundaries because he knows that breaking promises will get him a no-sex-for-who-bloody-knows-how-long penalty. But he still has a gift for sleight of hand and being sneaky in general.

Which is how he's able to make the little box seem to appear on the table between Jacob and Cassandra's places like magic, without either of them noticing.

"What's this?" the historian asks, noticing the box first.

"Gift," Ezekiel replies, sitting on the opposite side of the table, chin propped in his hand. "I didn't steal it. Thief's honour," he adds at the sceptical eyebrow Jacob arches at him.

Cassandra picks up the box and shakes it with a childlike enthusiasm. "What is it?" she asks, delighted.

"The whole point is that I don't tell you. Open it," Ezekiel laughs.

The redhead eagerly wriggles the lid off the box, and almost as soon as she does, she starts laughing, hunching over in giggles. "What is it? Lemme see," Jacob demands, poking her in the ribs until she holds it out, still giggling merrily.

It's a jewelry box, and the cardboard insert has Ezekiel's chicken-scratch handwriting scribbled on it: _To remind you that you are stuck with me for life since neither of you can pick a lock._ And beneath that, it says in bolded letters: _Partners (in crime)_. There are three matching necklaces inside, delicate silver chains...with a set of handcuffs on them.

"For God's sake," Jacob groans, but the corners of his mouth are twitching with barely repressed mirth.

Cassandra's already prying up the little sliver of cardboard and untangling the chains from each other. "It's wonderful, Zeke, thank you," she laughs as she stands, leaning across the table to clasp the chain around Ezekiel's neck and planting a kiss on his forehead as she does.

"Glad you like it, kitten," Ezekiel replies.

Jacob rolls his eyes, but he's still smiling as he helps Cassandra put hers on, holding her hair out of the way. When she turns back around to hand him his necklace, they all hesitate for a moment. The only necklace Jacob ever wears is a ball-chain with his brother Eliot's dog tags on it. He never takes it off, and he never wears anything else with it.

"Cowboy, you don't have to—" Ezekiel starts to say.

"Zip it, punk. If I'm stuck with you, I might as well own it," Jacob replies with a smirk. He takes the chain from Cassandra, but doesn't hang it around his neck. Instead, he winds the chain around his wrist three times and clasps it then, so it sits next to the bracelets he's wearing, matching the turquoise-studded silver bands quite nicely. "There. Problem solved."

Ezekiel smiles back at him. "So, you don't mind being stuck with me, then?" he asks.

"Oh, I do," Jacob answers, then leans across the table and tugs the thief forward to kiss him soundly. "But I've learned to love you, so I guess it's not so bad."

* * *

Much to Ezekiel's chagrin and delight, Cassandra and Jacob didn't take off their chains unless they were in the shower. Like Jacob said, they were stuck with him, so they might as well own it, right?

When Eliot comes by in one of his slowly-becoming-common visits to the Library—he's getting used to being Jacob's brother again after nearly twenty years' estrangement—he's the first to notice Jacob's new accessory.

"What's that?" he asks, gesturing with the point of the kitchen knife he's using to chop vegetables for stew. One of the benefits of having a magic door is that they can both visit Texas and go lamping for rabbits and be back before lunch. There's a large pot bubbling on the stove that's eventually going to be rabbit stew, big enough to feed all of them.

"Hm?" Jacob glances down at his wrist and smiles a little. "Oh, it's from Jonesy. He got us a matching set of these. Since we're his partners in crime."

"Just in crime?" Eliot asks slyly, and laughs aloud when Jacob immediately turns and slugs him in the shoulder. "Ooh, touchy, touchy."

"Shut _up._ Besides, is there anything you wanna tell me about Hardison and Parker, big brother? You guys look pretty cozy to me, unless Parker likes to climb everyone like a tree," Jacob shoots back.

"Touché. Weird how we both ended up like this, huh?"

The historian laughs as he dumps a pile of diced potatoes into the slowly bubbling pot on the stove. "Yeah. Cassandra said that the odds of identical twin brothers ending up in parallel threesomes is pretty much next to impossible, unless it was preordained from the moment we were born," he replies, then pauses and tilts his head. "Which it might actually have been. You never know. Prophecies are weird."

 _"Life_ is weird, man," Eliot agrees, picking up a spoon and tasting the stew. "Mm. Needs more garlic."

"Spice cupboard's on your left."

* * *

The next time the Librarians visit the brewpub for dinner, Jacob is the first to notice.

When Parker hangs upside down from the ceiling, a slender chain slithers out of the neckline of her shirt, dangling somewhere around her left temple: a set of handcuffs, cast in gold instead of silver, with tiny diamonds set in them. Real ones, of course.

Suddenly fighting a grin, Jacob casts a glance at Hardison, who's sitting with Cassandra and having some kind of geek mind-meld over mathematics. How about that, he's wearing a slender golden chain, too, though his is tucked beneath his shirt so there's no way to tell if there's actually handcuffs on it too.

Turning, he walks up behind Eliot's chair, hooks one finger through the chain, and tugs on it sharply. Not hard enough to break it, but enough to pull it free of his shirt so Jacob can see there is indeed a matching charm on Eliot's necklace. "Partners in crime, huh?" he asks smugly.

Eliot hastily tucks the chain back into his shirt, shaking his hair forward so Jacob can't see his ears turning pink. "Shut up, punk."

"Aw, still a big softie, Eli?"

"I said, shut _up."_

"Ooh, now who's touchy? Three little thieves, sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S— _ow!"_

Parker swings herself upright, tilting her head curiously as she peers down at them. "Why's Eliot choking Jacob?"

Cassandra's noticed the gold chains that Hardison and Parker are both wearing, and she has an inkling as to why; stealing a glance at Ezekiel, she sees him trying to smother laughter behind his hands and knows he's aware, too. When their gazes met, they both suddenly start laughing until they cry a little.

Hardison opens his mouth to ask, but before gets a word out, Cassandra and Ezekiel both fish out their necklaces, still giggling, leaning forward to show them to Hardison. He takes one look and nearly snorts orange soda out of his nose. The duo both start laughing again, and this time, he's laughing with them.

Parker looks between the two Librarians having hysterics in the booth with Hardison to Eliot, who's now chasing Jacob around the bar, then gleefully declares to nobody in particular, "They're as crazy as we are! We're definitely keeping them!"


End file.
